Solomon: Wade proves he's still a class act

Updated 8:51 pm, Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Astros' media guide used to claim Wade's career in Major League Baseball came full circle when he was named the team's general manager in 2007.

After all, Wade's first full-time job in baseball came in Houston's public relations department in late 1977. But the full circle point wasn't quite accurate.

Wade's first work in baseball was as an intern with the Philadelphia Phillies, some eight months before he was hired by the Astros. Actually, before that even, while still a student at Temple, Wade was a press runner for the Phillies in the 1976 NL Championship Series.

So when he returned to the organization this offseason as a special consultant to the GM, Wade had indeed come full circle, back to the organization for which he started working the day after his 21st birthday.

On a recent afternoon, as he watched young players in the Phillies system work out at spring training, he reflected on his four-year stint with the Astros and, as always, exhibited the class that makes him one of the more respected and likable men in the sport.

No anger. No grudge. No ax to grind.

In fact, Wade says that when the Astros step onto the field to face the Phillies in an exhibition game Wednesday, he will feel no ill will toward the organization, despite being relieved of his duties as its general manager the day before Thanksgiving, just after new owner Jim Crane officially took over the team.

It says something about his character that Wade still won't criticize former Astros owner Drayton McLane for basically gutting the franchise and not giving Wade a chance to put together a competitive ballclub.

Wade didn't call the plays; he just ran the offense.

"It behooves one to follow the directives of the owner," Wade said.

Wade obediently followed McLane's plan, as he was in effect called upon to help the women and children - which in this case were veterans making money and any quality player a team was willing to trade for - escape the Astros' sinking ship.

When Wade left Houston, the Astros' payroll was roughly half what it was when he arrived.

And some of you think it's his fault the team wasn't very good? That's funny.

Wade wanted to produce a winner with the Astros. Under the circumstances, no general manager could.

That doesn't mean he didn't make a couple of mistakes. But face it: Wade's having lived above the funeral home his father ran must have helped him cope with working at McLane's Minute Maid Mortuary.

McLane decided that every nickel spent would be money taken directly out of the family fortune. So he closed the checkbook.

A team can pull that off and still win if its farm system is loaded and it gets a little lucky, but not if its farm system is as bare as the Astros' was at the time.

So guess what. The team lost. A lot.

The fans were punished. Wade took much of the blame.

Meanwhile, the Phillies, the team Wade had such a hand in building, won. A lot.

Philadelphia has made the postseason in five straight years and claimed the 2008 World Series.

Now he is back with the organization he has long loved. He is near his home - his wife maintained her job and their home in Pennsylvania while he lived in an apartment just outside downtown Houston - and charged with a scouting assignment that will allow him to spend most of his time in the area.

One wonders what Wade could have built in Houston under different circumstances. So does Wade, but he expects no sympathy.

"The bottom line is we didn't get it done, and that's disappointing," Wade said.